Winnie the Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. He appears in the books Winnie-the-Pooh (published October 14, 1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). more...

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Milne also wrote two books of children's poetry, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six, which include several poems about Winnie-the-Pooh. All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard. The setting of the stories is based on the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, England. The name "Winnie" was inspired by a pet bear of a Canadian soldier, named after his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Pooh Bear's friends include Christopher Robin, Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo, and Tigger.

The Pooh stories were later made into a series of Winnie the Pooh (without hyphens) featurettes by Walt Disney Productions, which became one of the company's most successful franchises worldwide. The character Gopher was added in the Disney version.

Origins

The character was named after a toy bear owned by Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne. Most of the other characters are also named after toys belonging to Christopher Milne, the exceptions being Christopher Robin himself, and Owl and Rabbit, who are presumably based on real-life animals. Christopher Milne had named his toy after a real bear called Winnipeg, brought to Britain from Canada and whom Milne and his son often saw at London Zoo, and "Pooh", a swan they had met on a holiday (who appears in When We Were Very Young).

Winnipeg the bear was discovered at a stop in White River, Ontario, by members of The Fort Garry Horse Canadian regiment of cavalry, en route to the battlefields of France during World War I. The bear was smuggled into Britain as the unofficial regimental mascot. Winnie's first owner was Lt. Harry Colebourn. He was the regiment's veterinarian, responsible for their horses. Winnie's eventual destination was to be the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, but at the end of the War, the officers of the Fort Garry Horse decided to allow her to remain in London Zoo, where she was much loved for her playfulness. She was known as a gentle bear and never attacked anyone. This is exactly what inspired Milne to write about Pooh Bear.

Christopher Robin's toy bear is now on display at the Donnell Library Center Central Children's Room in New York .

The forest in which the stories are set is based on the Ashdown Forest in which the Milnes lived. The fictional "Hundred Acre Wood" is a named location in the stories. The form of the name appears to follow that of the Five Hundred Acre Wood, which lies just outside Ashdown Forest, and includes some of the locations mentioned in the book, such as the Enchanted Place.

A poem by Milne, called “Vespers,” was presented to the editors of Vanity Fair Magazine in 1923 by his wife Daphne.

Read more at Wikipedia.org